Curator’s Corner

Remington depicts “thunder fighters” of the Sioux Nation not only braving a storm, but braving their own fears to chase off the big black thunder bird whose beating wings filled the air with roaring. The painting was originally intended as an illustration in the 1892 edition of Francis Parkman’s The Oregon Trail. Frederic Remington | The Thunder-Fighters Would take Their Bows and Arrows, Their Guns, Their Magic Drum | 1892 | Oil on wood panel | 30 inches x 18 inches Francis Parkman (1823-1893) was born into a well-to-do Boston family. In April of 1846, just out of [...]

In 1907, Charlie Russell painted Utica, also known as A Quiet Day in Utica, a scene that is anything other than quiet. This work was a commission by the Lehman family, who had owned the general store in Utica, Montana. By this point, the family had moved to Lewistown and were wanting their former customer, the now-famous cowboy artist, to paint a picture to be used on a calendar to advertise their family store in Lewistown. Every figure in this painting is said to be identifiable, but today I want to focus on just one. In the doorway of the [...]

*After the Civil War, there was a need to connect the ranchmen of Texas Longhorn cattle with the feeders and packers in northern U.S. By the 1870’s, Texas began to assume its preeminence as a source of American food, particularly beef. As such, moving cattle from grazing lands in Texas to rail terminals was an annual job. The new Kansas Pacific railroad brought an opportunity to set up new markets for Texas cattle in northern states. Promotional maps and pamphlets were printed in large numbers between 1871 and 1875 praising the benefits of using the railroad’s services to fill the [...]

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the legendary Chisholm Trail. Named after the Scot-Cherokee trader, Jesse Chisholm, the trail was a major route for Texas livestock. In its brief existence, the cattle drive era amounted to the greatest migration of livestock in world history, with more than 5 million cattle and 5 million mustangs moving from Texas ranches to northern markets. As waypoint along the trail, Fort Worth experienced economic growth and developed a unique Western heritage as a result. The Best and Shortest Cattle Trail from Texas, Kansas Pacific Railway Company, St. Louis, MO: Levison & Blythe, [...]

Our current exhibition features a painting by artist Shannon Stirnweis. Shannon Stirnweis | Lonesome Dove | 1985 | Oil on canvas mounted on wood panel | The Wittliff Collections, Alkek Library, Texas State University Look familiar? This is the image that graced the original cover of the 1985 publication of Larry McMurtry’s novel Lonesome Dove. How does an artist develop a book cover design? Our research volunteer, Shelle McMillen, spoke with Mr. Stirnweis to learn more. Shannon Stirnweis has had much experience working in the book publishing industry, having produced several book covers for Western literary authors like [...]

Our current exhibit, Lonesome Dove: The Art of Story, traces the path of Lonesome Dove from Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the original screenplay and filming of the legendary TV miniseries. Included in the display of The Wittliff Collection's film production archives are original and facsimiles of storyboards. But what is a storyboard and why are they important to the making of a movie? Michael Peal | Facsimiles, Storyboards for Stampede Scene | The Wittliff Collections, Alkek Library, Texas State University Michael Peal was the storyboard artist for the Lonesome Dove miniseries. Growing up, Peal loved movies [...]

Trail drives were a big but short-lived venture. After the Civil War, there was a brief period in which millions of cattle were driven from Texas to northern markets, traveling over the vast open range. Historians estimate that cowboys drove 6-9 million head of cattle from the Lone Star state to Kansas between 1867-1886. With the introduction of barbed wire, the expansion of railroads, and the development of meat packing plants near ranching areas, epic cattle drives like the one documented in the story Lonesome Dove were no longer necessary. Rarely do we have the opportunity to hear firsthand from [...]

Tomorrow our new exhibit Lonesome Dove: The Art of Story opens to the public. This exhibition celebrates Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning tale and traces the path of its development from McMurtry’s first drafts to the original movie script to the legendary miniseries. Lonesome Dove: The Art of Story | exhibition poster | ( Poster Image: Lonesome Dove from JJ Pumphrey General Merchandise Store | Cary White (1948-) | Fall, 1987 | Sandblasted rough-sawn lumber, house paint | The Witliff collections, Alkek Library, texas State University ) For the first time ever, Lonesome Dove Collection works from the Wittliff [...]

*Iconic Western painter Frederic Remington began his career drawing black and white illustrations for the most popular magazines in America. Yet he yearned to be known as an artist, not just an illustrator, and he strategically drew inspiration from the museums and art galleries of New York City.  Friends with American Impressionist Childe Hassam and a number of young American painters, Remington first saw the work of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and other modern French painters at the newly opened Durand-Ruel Gallery whose owner became an early proponent of French Impressionism. Following over a century of tradition, French [...]

Charles M. Russell | First Wagon Trail (First Wagon Tracks) | 1908 | Pencil, watercolor and gouache on paper | 18 1/4 x 27 inches The scene from Russell’s exquisite watercolor from 1908, First Wagon Trail, would have been set in the 1840s, when wagon trains heading to west first cut paths across the plains. These warriors show little evidence of contact with whites. The wagon tracks have these men wondering what kind of sizable beast has left the tracks. Originally, between about 1811 and 1840, one could only traverse the trails across the plains by foot or [...]